The Portland daily press., 1887-09-17
First celebration Of the Constitution.

First Celebration OF the ConStituttoH.
Thursdays grand procession in Philadel-
phia was the second that had paraded Its
streets in honor of the adoption OF the Com
stitution. On the Fourth Of July, 1888, after
the ten States had adopted the instrument
which the delegates had ratified on the sew
enteenth OF the preceding September, the
citizens of Philadelphia celebrated both the
Declaration of Independence and the estab-
lishment Of the Constitution. The great fea-
ture of the celebration was procession,
which the patriot, Francis Hopkinson, his
well known wit and sarcasm repressed by
admiration, describes as ''an exhibition
which for novelty, splendor and decorum
Justly merited universal admiration and ap-
plause. II, beside the magnifcence of the
thing itself, we take into consideration the
important occasion that induced it, it must
be acknowledged to have been an object most
interesting and truly sublime" Compared
with the miles of tableaux that Thursday
brought before the eyes Of thousands the
measure of America industrial magnifcence
and of the progress of an hundred years, the
small procession of less than forty pieces
would seem less worthy of univers al ad-
miration and applause" than it did to the
scholar and wit who described it in the twi-
light of the eighteenth century. Yet the old
procession, could it pass through the streets
Of Philadelphia to-day, would probably be
far richer in historic associations than would
be the procession of Thursday an hundred
years hence. Twelve axemen, dressed in
white frocks with white girdles round their
waists and wearing ornamented caps, com
posed its van under the command OF Philip
Pancake. They were followed by the First
City Troop, by John Nixon, on horseback
dressed to represent independence, and hr :
6onra ranresentinp tha---E-vz10H All@ncc'
ne e-s--snsIninons, on horseback, carried
flag of white silk, bearing three feur-de-tts
and thirteen stars in union over the words
''Sixth of February, 177S" in gold characters.
The horse that he rode was the identical
horse which Count Rochambeau rode at the
siege Of Yorktown. The white lilies of the
House of Bourbon have long since ceased to
wave over French Empirs and at the very
moments that the long procession in Phila-
delphia was celebrating the permanence OF
our constitution, despite the shocks of Gen.
fury, the agents of an exied Bourbon prince
were planning the subversion of the consti-
tuition of the French Republic. The piece
which represented the Constitution consisted
of lofty ornamented car in the form of
large eagle, and was drawn by six white horses
On this car were perched. not allegorica
figures. but Chief Justice Mexican of Penn
syTvanru1 ---itiA 4Iun associate justices. TIL
Chief Justice, who had writtal the Consti
tuition of the State of Delaware im singh
night without book of reference, supports
tall staff, on the top of which was the ca
of liberty, under the cap the snew constitu
ton. framed and ornamented, and imme
diately under the Constitution the words
in large gold letters, THE People. In
twenty-fourth representation was made b
the carpenters of Philadelphia, always
most respectable and influential body Q
men, When the Continental Congress ha
first assembled in Philadelphia, fourtee
years before, Galloway, the Speaker, move
that the Pennsylvania State House be use